Tourist arrivals up by 9% in April

By Cheranka Mendis

Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 9% to 69,591 in April from a year earlier, continuing the growth momentum established in 2010.

Data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority yesterday showed arrivals topping 330,116 during the first four months of the year, an 18.3% increase from the period a year ago.

The largest arrivals from a single country came from neighbouring India, which recorded an arrival base of 15,432 in April, a 4.9% increase from February 2011.

Recognised as a traditional market, the UK, which is the second biggest market, recorded a decrease of 11.3% with just 8,019 tourists coming into the country. The UK recorded a negative mark in January and February as well.

Taking up the positions as third, fourth and fifth, Germany, France and Australia fell into line respectively with arrivals of 4,645 (12.9%), 4,533 (9.5%) and 3,554% (6.4%).

Regionally, Western Europe recorded the largest number of arrivals, 25,018, a 7.8% increase from the same month of the previous year.  Arrivals from South Asia were 20,532 (4.9%), East Asia 8,950, Eastern Europe 3,583 and North America 3,238.  Tourists from Middle East were recorded as 3,583, Australasia 4,120, Africa 265 and Latin America and the Caribbean 82.



When assessing percentage wise growth for the month, the largest growth was seen from Ukraine, which noted 1076.5%, followed by Philippines with an increase of 384.5% and Spain 204.1%. Individual numbers for the countries are 1,012 this month from 86 last April for Ukraine, 420 from Switzerland and 897 from Spain.

When totalling the arrival figures for the first four months of the year, Sri Lanka’s biggest market was India (55,780) trailed by the UK (36,959), Germany (26,097), France (22,212) and Australia (13,364).